Lake Lily

Lake Lily is a lake in Cape May County, New Jersey. It was a prized watering hole for the Kechemeche Lenape Native Americans, who summered and hunted in Cape May, but they were pushed out by whalers and farmers in the 1700s. During the late 1600s, the privateer-turned-pirate William Kidd and his 60-man crew sought unsalted drink from the lake's fresh waters, anchoring off the high dunes of Cape May Point, coming ashore in small boats, and hiking to the lake to fill their barrels with water. Governor Jeremiah Basse sailed down to capture the notorious pirate, but Kidd outmaneuvered him and fled to New York and New England, and he was ultimately captured in Boston and hanged in England. However, it was rumored that Kidd had buried some of his stolen treasure in Cape May before his flight. In 1813, during the War of 1812, the local coastal militia dug a ditch to let salt water into the pond to render the water unfit to drink, preventing the British Royal Navy sailors from coming ashore for drinking water. The lake languished in the Stite's Beach wilderness until the 1870s, when the establishment of a religious community at the nearby Pavilion Circle led to the 1875 dredging of the lake to make it deep enough for boating. The Presbyterian town folk enjoyed boating across the scenic lake, and a club opened along the lake in 1899. In 1930, the Ferris family of Philadelphia bought the lake, and it was bequeathed to Cape May Point in 1910. During the 1990s, local residents formed "Friends of Lake Lily" to maintain the lake and create new life for it.